Genus: Thunnus, Common Tuna, Tunas

THUNNUS

TUNAS

Body elongate, fusiform, moderately compressed; no fatty eyelid; teeth slender, conical; top of tongue with 2 cartilaginous ridges; 19-45 gill rakers; 2 dorsal fins, barely separated; 1st dorsal XII-XVI; 8-9 finlets after dorsal and anal fins; short, forked bony process between pelvic fins; 1 large + 2 small keels on tail base; tail fin deeply forked; well developed scaly corselet on front of body; small scales cover body behind corselet; lateral line complete; no dark spots or stripes on body.

A circumglobal tropical to temperate genus with 8 species; in our region there are 3 circumglobal, one N Atlantic and one W-Atlantic species.